Unemployment decreased 16,300 (2.5%) to 637,400. The number of persons looking for full-time work decreased 8,500 to 461,800 and the number of persons looking for part-time work decreased 7,800 to 175,500.

The unemployment rate decreased to 5.2%, a decrease of 0.1 pts based on unrounded estimates.

The participation rate decreased 0.1 pts to 65.1%.

Aggregate monthly hours worked increased 1.3 million hours to 1,622.0 million hours.

Labour Force estimates from July 2008 to October 2012 have been revised to align the labour force population benchmarks with the latest available information on population growth. These estimates use the 2006 Census base for the population benchmarks.

Details of further rebenchmarking of the Labour Force estimates, including the 2011 Census-based rebenchmarking, are included in the feature article Rebenchmarking of Labour Force Series in this publication.

ELECTRONIC COLLECTION OF LABOUR FORCE DATA

The ABS will commence a trial of on-line electronic data collection of labour force data from households in December 2012. The trial will be conducted on one rotation group of the Labour Force Survey (i.e. one-eighth of the survey sample). As part of this trial, respondents in this rotation group will be offered the option of completing their labour force survey questionnaire on-line instead of a face-to-face or telephone interview. Information about the trial will be included in the December 2012 issue of this publication, due for release on 17 January 2013. The trial will continue for a number of months prior to a decision on rolling out an electronic collection option progressively to the full sample of the Labour Force Survey.

SAMPLING ERROR

The estimates in this publication are based on a sample survey. Published estimates and the movements derived from them are subject to sampling variability. Standard errors give a measure of sampling variability. The interval bounded by two standard errors is the 95% confidence interval, which provides a way of looking at the variability inherent in estimates. There is a 95% chance that the true value of the estimate lies within that interval.

MOVEMENTS IN SEASONALLY ADJUSTED SERIES BETWEEN OCTOBER 2012 AND NOVEMBER 2012

Monthly change

95% Confidence interval

Total Employment

13 900

-41 100

to

68 900

Total Unemployment

-16 300

-47 900

to

15 300

Unemployment rate

-0.1 pts

-0.3 pts

to

0.1 pts

Participation rate

-0.1 pts

-0.5 pts

to

0.3 pts

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070, email client.services@abs.gov.au or Labour Force on Canberra (02) 6252 6525, email labourforce@abs.gov.au\>.

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